I have a feeling there will be a Fiat 500X in my driveway soon

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 04/01/2016 at 15:23 • Filed to: None

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In addition to me !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I’ve also been helping my gf lease her next car. She’s leasing a Civic through this July, but the trade value and payoff are about the same right now so she can get out of it. She’s much easier to shop for than me.

Leasing is perfect for her, because she puts such low mileage on her car. The lease on her Civic has worked out great. It’s only $160/month, and all she’s had to pay for aside from that is insurance, gas, oil changes, and a 15k mile service.

For her next car, she wants an awd hatchback—because I’m selling my Jeep and she wants to be able to carry the random furniture she will inevitably purchase at garage sales to refinish—with heated seats, a backup camera, and maybe a sunroof. I’ve been doing the car scouting, and narrowing down the list to 2 cars for her to choose from, because I’m a car nerd and she hates car dealerships, and visiting 2 of them is all she’s willing to tolerate.

The finalists are a Subaru Impreza, or a Fiat 500X. Other cars I looked at and ruled out are the Honda HR-V because the lease payments on them are ridiculously high right now, and the Mazda CX-3 because its back seat and trunk are tiny, and it has terrible, almost Camaro-like visibility. The beltline and cowl are way too high. Sure it’s the “fun” one in this segment but it’s not that fun and it totally screws the pooch on the practicality aspect, which is the whole point of a vehicle like this. No way is some vintage dresser going to fit in a CX-3, even with the seats flipped down.

She was all ready to jump on the Impreza bandwagon, until I brought her home a brochure from the Fiat dealer. Then she was all like, “I love how this looks but I thought it was too expensive!” I explained that Fiat/Chrysler aren’t selling enough cars, and they’re trying to move them with wild ‘n crazy deals, so the lease payments fit our budget.

Objectively speaking, the Impreza is a far better car than the 500X. It gets better mileage, it both handles better and has a comfier ride, you can see out of it better, it has a higher quality interior with much more comfortable seats, and is likely much more reliable. But, Imprezas and Crosstreks are everywhere here in Madison. I didn’t really even realize this until I started shopping for one, but they’re all over the place.

The 500X has a heated steering wheel, an optional panoramic sunroof, and looks like a vintage streamline-era refrigerator. Its turn signal click-clack noise maker is the cheapest sounding turn signal I have ever heard in any vehicle. The interior looks nice in photos but the materials are kinda low rent in person.

We’re going to check out both cars tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens. On paper, she’s all about that 500X, but maybe seeing it in person she’ll reach the same conclusion as me.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:25

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I’m so sorry

Textured Soy Protein > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 04/01/2016 at 15:29

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I get why she likes the 500X, because she likes the style, and an Impreza is both anonymous in and of itself, and there are tons of them (and Crosstreks) running around here in Madison. I never really noticed how many Imprezas there are here until we started looking at getting one, then I started seeing them everywhere.

She’s usually a pretty rational person so there’s still a chance she goes for the Impreza.

cabarne4 > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:34

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While it’s not as feature-rich, why not check out the Fit? Sure it’s not AWD, but it’s cheaper, and the rear end is HUGE (which is nice when you buy yard sale furniture to re-finish).

My mom used to do similar work on the side. Granted, she drove a Ford Expedition. But one time we sold a full size dresser at a yard sale, and a dude picked it up in a Honda Fit. It was ridiculous just how easily it swallowed the entire dresser, with room to spare.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:36

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Why no Crosstrek? Aside from your point that everyone in Madison already has one.

I have friends up that way. They work for YWAM.

yamahog > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:40

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“I brought her home a brochure from the Fiat dealer”

WHAT DID SHE DO TO DESERVE THIS

Textured Soy Protein > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/01/2016 at 15:41

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Sticker price is higher than the Impreza for the same equipment, she doesn’t care about the extra ride height, and she prefers the look of the Impreza without the extra body cladding on the Crosstrek. But it’s an option if lease payments end up being cheaper than a similarly-equipped Impreza.

Textured Soy Protein > cabarne4 04/01/2016 at 15:45

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Fit would be fine in terms of cargo space but she really wants awd. Not that awd is a magic bullet for winter, but she often goes to visit her mom in Burlington about 80 miles away, and in winter, it’d be extra peace of mind that she could get around if needed.

cabarne4 > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:45

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Oh god, you didn’t mention Vermont.

Get the Subaru.

Tripper > cabarne4 04/01/2016 at 15:47

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It is silly how useful the Fit is. However, why did they have to re name it for the US market? Jazz is such a cooler name.

Textured Soy Protein > yamahog 04/01/2016 at 15:47

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She’s always liked the looks of Minis and Fiats so while I wasn’t the hugest fan of the car I figured I’d present it as an option. I wasn’t prepared for quite how enthusiastically she reacted.

The Fiat sales guy did let me sit in the 4C Spider sitting in their showroom, so there’s that...

hike > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:47

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I actually kind of like the 500x. It feels a little sluggish in the normal drive mode, which is fine for typical driving, but is actually a fun little thing in sport mode. The Fiat dealer experience is also typically pretty good if it’s a stand alone (since there aren’t too many customer, each one gets better treatment!).

BeaterGT > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:48

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This takes morning sickness to a whole new level.

Textured Soy Protein > cabarne4 04/01/2016 at 15:48

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Wisconsin, not Vermont.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:48

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Makes sense. Just curious. I quite like the Scooby Fifteen Crosstrek, it’s too bad they won’t offer it with a stick and the sport package.

Textured Soy Protein > hike 04/01/2016 at 15:51

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The sales guy had me put it in sport mode. The only difference I noticed was it held on to gears too long without feeling any faster.

LongbowMkII > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 15:56

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What about the renegade? I know aesthetics are the biggest difference but it could be worth a look.

cabarne4 > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:01

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I mean, not as bad, but still pretty bad.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > LongbowMkII 04/01/2016 at 16:01

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I’d much rather have the Renegade than a 500X

Textured Soy Protein > LongbowMkII 04/01/2016 at 16:02

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I showed her the Renegade on the Jeep website and she doesn’t like the looks. She described it as “too bulky looking.”

hike > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:03

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Well that's basically what it does. It improves throttle response and prevents the transmission from being in super fuel economy mode.

Textured Soy Protein > hike 04/01/2016 at 16:04

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Well yeah, I know what it does. What I mean is, the change was detectable, but didn’t really create much of a different result. Putzing around town, it didn’t feel any faster, it just felt like it should’ve upshifted already.

Textured Soy Protein > Tripper 04/01/2016 at 16:05

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Because you can “fit” a lot of crap in it.

Also, it’s called the Fit in Japan, so Fit is the more JDM name y0.

LongbowMkII > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:05

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Fair enough. I was disappointed in the way both looked in person.

Textured Soy Protein > cabarne4 04/01/2016 at 16:07

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Many parts of Wisconsin are bad. Madison, where I live, is pretty not bad. There are many, many Subarus here though.

LongbowMkII > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:07

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What kind of lease offers does mini have? They seem to be slowing down the past few years too.

hike > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:14

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Ahh. Really depends on the setting I guess. It won't necessarily make it faster but should be more responsive, at least based on the time I've had behind the wheel.

Textured Soy Protein > LongbowMkII 04/01/2016 at 16:22

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I thought about that for her, and since I checked out a Clubman S for myself recently, I asked the sales guy to run some numbers on a Countryman.

They’re running a $239/month lease deal on the Countryman S All4, with $2799 down and 12k miles/year. But since so much stuff on them is optional, on the one they have in stock with the stuff on it she’d want, he came back with $349/month with $1500 down and 10k miles/year.

Going for less equipment would get it down some but still a good bit more than the 500X or Impreza.

mazda616 > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:31

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My only concern would be reliability (or the lack thereof) but I guess if it is a lease then that's less of a concern.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Textured Soy Protein 04/01/2016 at 16:33

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It seems most complaints about the various fiat/jeep models are about the auto transmission(and not even reliability, just its lack of smoothness) but people seem to like most other aspects, not such a bad choice. I’m seriously thinking a renegade with the 1.4t, a muffler delete and an ecu tune would be pretty fun. Impart just a little bit of abarth into the mini jeep... Definitely more character than most subarus.

Textured Soy Protein > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 04/01/2016 at 16:45

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That’s the thing, the Impreza is quite unexciting. She’s got her boring Civic, and the Impreza is very much more of the same, just awd, a hatchback, and better equipped because her Civic is a base model. She’s all excited about the Fiat because she loves how it looks and she wants a car that she feels something enthusiastic about it. Sure it’s not because of any performance-y, gearhead reasons, but I can respect wanting to have an emotional reaction to your car.